Limit raised to 180 bpm

• by 2for1
• 2013-11-23 10:11:05
• Exercise & Sports
• 1337 views
• 3 comments

(Followup to previous post.)

4 weeks post implant, 55yr old male: I finally got my PM max bpm moved up to 180 bpm, despite my dr.'s reluctance. It was followed up with a stress test which showed no heart problems (we went up to 175 or so).

My initial max setting was 130. This I hit with just moderate exercise. Since my PM tracks atrial beats, when the atria exceeded 130 the PM would only pace every other beat -- effectively inducing 2:1 heart block. It took some persuading to get the limit raised to just 150. Even 150 was easy to hit, but with the current 180 limit I feel no PM induced exercise limitation (e.g. doing a 6 minutes mile pace).

Thanks to all in this forum who wrote that a setting of 180 is possible, and who affirmed that, with only conduction problems, there needn't be any exercise limitations post implant (despite dr.'s initial assertions such as "you shouldn't be exercising at that level anyway".)